Google's business unit in Russia has filed a notice of intention to declare bankruptcy. The search engine giant's Russian division was reportedly forced to consider a shut down after Russian officials froze its assets and seized its bank accounts.

The company's Russian subsidiary said the seizure of its accounts made it impossible for it to continue its operations in the county. The company said it could no longer continue paying its Russia-based employees, its suppliers, and vendors and meet its financial obligations within the country.

Following Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February, Google, like many other multinational companies, halted most of its commercial activities in the nation. Despite the bankruptcy notice, Google said that it would do everything it could to continue to provide some of its services, including Google Search, YouTube, Gmail, Maps, and Android, to Russian users.

The ad platform, Google's most significant product, was shut down in Russia on March 3 after the Russian government demanded that it filter advertising concerning the conflict. The main four credit card firms all pulled out of Russia during the following five days in March, making typical commercial transactions extremely difficult for Google and other companies that remained in Russia. Google eventually shut down its Google Play paid applications due to the payment system disruptions.

According to a previous regulatory filing, Google Russia has been planning to file for bankruptcy since March 22. The division made $2 billion in income last year, but that doesn't matter much when all of their bank accounts have been confiscated by authorities.

It's unclear how big of a role Google will play in Russia in the coming years. Google had good relations with the Russian government before the war. After the conflict broke, Google had been criticized for its actions, or lack thereof, when compared to its competitors like Microsoft and Apple, who both voluntarily stopped offering paid services in the country before the credit card firms backed out.

While Google has a 90% or more search market share in many countries, Russia is one of the few where it doesn't have that much of a monopoly. Google and local tech giant Yandex divide the search market by about 50/50. That market share might explain why Google isn't taking a hard line against Russia.

The Russian government continues to rely on Google for several services. Russian government officials announced on Tuesday that they still want YouTube to remain operational in the nation, claiming that a shutdown would hurt Russian residents. In Russia, like in the rest of the globe, there are no other video sites available that are comparable to YouTube.